Murtagh
by Aspire King
Summary: No one likes it when their favorite character doesn't get his way. So I am going to write a happier version of Eldest for Murtagh and I man going on to the other books too while I am at it.
1. Chapter 1

Murtagh

The black veil of peaceful sleep suddenly lifted and Murtagh found himself in a vault. He soon recognized it as the place where the King hid his dragon eggs; or the remaining two at least. A dais was set in the middle of the room and upon it were three pedestals with thick cushions on top of them. Each stand and pillow corresponded in color to the Dragon Egg sitting on top of the - or in the case of the blue one the egg that _had_ been sitting on it.

The rest of the room was rather plain. There was a fire burning in three small alcoves in the wall across from the gigantic door.

Murtagh was curiously wondering at where the tiny wisps of smoke went and how it was that no one had conceived entering the vault through the chimneys that had to exist - unless magic was involved in the removal of the smoke - when people suddenly materialized in the room.

Shock and a slight amount of horror froze Murtagh in place. The beautiful woman - standing closest to the dais of the four occupants of the room - with the long golden blonde hair was immediately recognized as his mother. She was wearing a red dress that looked like cascading blood.

Behind her, near the door, the King stood arguing with a demon of a man. He was tall and broad through the shoulders. His mane of raven black hair fell to his shoulders and he starred at the room with anger filled blue and black eyes.

"Morzan…father…." Murtagh gasped as he found his legs had fallen out from beneath him and he was upon his knees.

It was a dream it had to be. Two of the three people in the room were dead. There was no way…no way… Yet the dread in his heart would not leave him. Something terrible was going to happen. He knew it he could feel it.

"What is it momma?"

A child stood beside Murtagh's mother. At first he couldn't make sense of who the child was then he acknowledged the familiar black hair and silver eyes. It was him back when he must have been three or four years old.

_This is a memory!_ Murtagh thought as he looked around the room with renewed eyes.

"What is it child?" his mother asked. Oh how he had missed her soothing voice. It almost brought tears to a matured pair of silver eyes.

Murtagh's eyebrows creased in confusion or frustration or perhaps both. "You called my name."

Selena shook her head. "No I didn't baby," she said. "No one did."

The boy frowned and looked to the eggs once again. Seconds passed before fear took place of his confusion and he hid behind his mother's skirts with a cry. "Momma it's in my head. It's talking to me in my head."

The woman looked down at her son with utter concern in her eyes. "Murtagh, what is it what's wrong?" The King and his servant had stopped their arguing and were gazing intently at the boy.

Murtagh reached around his mother and pointed at the red dragon egg. "It's in my head. It's saying my name!" Murtagh cried as he buried his face in her skirts.

Before Selena could react Morzan raced forward and grabbed Murtagh's arm jerking him around. "You're lying," he snarled at his son.

"No, father, please…" Murtagh began to beg…for what his older counterpart observing this mess unfold could not tell.

The back of Morzan's hand cracked across Murtagh's face with enough force to knock him several feet away from his mother. The boy fell to the ground in a heap. A moment later he sat up and pressed a hand to his blazing red cheek as tears fell from his eyes. "Father…" the child moaned.

Murtagh, the one witnessing the memory unfold, clutched at his chest. A deep ache had suddenly sprung up there as if a deep wound had been opened and laid bare for the world to see. Awful visions of his father sprang up. Most of which were mere images of him that had been posted upon the walls of Galdbatorix home as the searing agony of the scar on his back opening again and again under the blade at his waist filled his body. Above this all he felt the despair of wasted love and the utter hopelessness of paternal betrayal.

"Morzan!" Galdbatorix exclaimed making Murtagh raise his tear stained back to the scene before him.

The King was standing beside his servant holding the man's shoulder as if he were afraid that the Forsworn might launch himself at his son and brutalize him.

"If the child says he's not lying then I am inclined to believe the young man. After all why would he have a reason to tell us falsehoods," Galdbatorix said as he advanced toward the crumpled figure. "Which you know as well as I means only one thing…" the King said as that evil glint that the observer of these atrocities knew to be his madness showing through.

"No!" the child screamed as the King dragged him to his feet and led him toward the dais and the red stone. "No. Majesty, please!" the boy begged.

"Stop!"

Selena had strode forward and snatched his son from the Kings grasp. Galdbatorix spun and stuck her across the cheek but unlike her son she did not fall.

"I will not allow this. He's a child and a terrified one at that. That dragon has waited this long for him. He can continue to wait at least until he's twenty one and properly trained for it," she said as she held her sobbing son close to her bosom.

Galdbatorix glared at her. For the longest time no one moved. Murtagh - both of them - waited, trembling, knowing the King surely lash out at their mother. But against all logic the Kings face calmed.

In the ancient language he said, "I swear to you these eggs will never leave this room and your son shall not see the inside of this room again until his twenty first year."

As the last word resounded through the room everything faded away. The darkness swallowed him for a moment before he woke up, covered in sweat and gasping for air back in the cave far beneath the dwarven city of Farthen Dur.

A voice horrible and bitter sounded in the back of his mind. _Happy twenty-first Birthday._


	2. Chapter 2

Murtagh 2

Once again Murtagh thanked his need for isolation as he peeked around the corner of his secluded little outlet where he had chosen to spend the night. Ajihad and his group of men were sleeping in the main cavern. The guards at the door took notice of him but didn't bother him.

Ajihad slept on the opposite side of the room of course. Murtagh kept telling himself it hadn't been on purpose, that that had just been the place the leader of the Varden had chosen to sleep. Still, as he had many times since he and Eragon joined the rebels, he felt as if the leader wasn't making an effort to try trusting him and was determined to keep his distance for fear of attack.

_Damn it, stop this. If he didn't trust you or at least wish to give you a chance he wouldn't have let you out of the Windowless Room. You'd still be there if he didn't think you were worth a chance. _Murtagh steeled himself and walked across the room.

The men at the door stood as he stopped at Ajihads side. Murtagh nudged the leader of the Vardens shoulder with his boot. As befit a warrior the man woke up when the slight pressure was applied. Murtagh nodded toward the entrance to the ancient room before making his way silently through the sleeping men. He didn't look back to see if Ajihad followed.

Out in the grand hall they had been traveling down Murtagh turned to the right and stopped after he turned a corner.

Ajihad joined him a moment later. "What is it?"

"Galdbatorix is looking for me," Murtagh said.

"I never believed he wouldn't. If nothing else you're a promising warrior that rivals Eragon all on your own. Why did you wake me to tell me something so obvious?" Ajihad asked as he crossed his arms and looked down at Murtagh.

Murtagh narrowed his eyes at the adult talking to a silly child pose Ajihad had taken and said, "I remembered something, something important."

Ajihad didn't respond only waited for Murtagh to continue.

"After Saphira's egg had been stolen Galdbatorix brought my mother, my father, and myself to the vault where the other two eggs remained. I do not remember why but I do remember the dragon in the red egg calling my name. The name of his chosen Rider."

At first the leader of the Varden did not respond. Finally he took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "It had been conceived that you may be made to replace your father, weather by one of the eggs willing participation or by force as Shruikan serves the False King.

"Why, may I ask, are you not currently kept under lock and key in Ur'bean with your dragon?"

Murtagh looked away. "My mother she…she made Galdbatorix swear that he would not allow me anywhere near the egg until I turned twenty one."

"I take it it's your birthday," Ajihad replied.

Silence fell between them. To each was left their own thoughts.

"You're too valuable an asset now to leave running around. But I don't see you lying low and just accepting…for lack of better being caged so the king can't get his hands on you."

"Hell no," Murtagh replied.

Ajihad sighed. "We return to Tronjheim tomorrow. Don't do anything stupid," he turned away and walked back around the corner to the room where the rest of the men were staying.

Murtagh took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh before turning away and walking deeper into the tunnels of the mountains.

_Things can't possibly get worse._

He didn't want riches or fame. A chance to prove he wasn't his father and was incapable of living up to the expectation that he was anything like Morzan would have been nice but there was no way in hell he wanted to go looking for one.

A quiet corner of the world where he could be left alone was all he wanted. All he needed was to be left alone.

Ever since he'd been born there had only been to people in the world to him. People who despised him for relationships and events that he hadn't been even alive to change or influence at the time. And people who wanted to use him for whatever 'power' he possessed.

As of yet he'd only found two exceptions to this rule; his mother and his beloved teacher. A hollow pain filled his chest as he recalled the only two people he had truly ever cared for.

Eragon. There was a chance that he might join the few to gain Murtagh as a close friend. Their time traveling together had certainly helped things but now that Eragon knew who Murtagh's father was…They hadn't spent much time with each other since Murtagh's confession. He wasn't sure Eragon would yet turn on him.

_And now this…What am I to do? _

He starred at the stone walls he passed as he made his way back to the room they occupied, as if they might hold the answers to his conundrum. But they all remained blank.

Murtagh starred and watched in absolute dread as the Twins called a great magic that slaughtered all the men save Ajihad and himself. The Urgals remained untouched. Stone connected with his back and Murtagh crumpled to the ground.

His vision black out for a moment. A sharp pain pierced his arm and warmth filled his body. When he finally came too Murtagh was unable to move. His mind was alert and shouting orders at his body but he was hardly able to blink.

_What's happening to me?_

An Urgals body suddenly fell in front of him with a loud thud. Ajihad was standing over him, fighting like a mad man…to protect him?

Two more Urgals fell beneath Ajihads sword. Murtagh was beginning to believe they may survive long enough for help to come. He heard Saphira's roar from somewhere nearby.

A sword suddenly split Ajihads chest. Blood splattered onto Murtagh's face. Time slowed as the blade was removed and the leader of the Varden fell to the ground.

His bottomless black eyes fell on Murtagh. There was a moment where Murtagh swore he saw pity and a longing for forgiveness.

Rough hands wrapped around his arm and lifted his limp body and threw him onto the shoulder of an Urgal. What remained of the enemy troops carried him and the Twins into the tunnel they had just exited from.

Murtagh was captured.


End file.
